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Syrian Electronic Army Hijacks Twitter Accounts of Financial Times and the Telegraph

The Syrian Electronic Army added two new victims to their impressive collection of hijacked Twitter, blog and Facebook accounts. The Financial Times and the Telegraph join this week the Onion, the Guardian, E! Online, the BBC, NPR media network and the Associated Press after having their Tech blog and Twitter accounts taken over by the Syrian hacktivist group.

The hijacking was followed by the posting of some 12 blog posts and twits within five minutes. SEA claimed the attack in one such posting by writing “Syrian Electronic Army Was Here” and used another to redirect users towards a disturbing video showing blindfolded men being executed.

The posts were immediately removed. "We have now secured those accounts and are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible," a representative of the Financial Times said, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.

The Telegraph had both their Twitter and Facebook accounts hacked and made to display out-of-context messages, including “Cameron holds fundraiser for the terrorists in Syria. ‘It’s for the greater good’, he tells us in a private interview”. On Twitter, SEA compromised more accounts related to the newspaper: @TeleTheatre, @TelegraphOpera, @TelegraphArt, @TelegraphFilm, @Tele_Comedy, @TelegraphSport, and @TelegraphBooks.

Twitter blocks all accounts linked to the hacktivist group and urges all companies to be extremely attentive with sensitive data and take extra precaution against phishing attacks because: “We trust that these attacks will continue, and that news and media organizations will continue to be high value targets to hackers.”

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